Friday, October 24, 2008

Une recherche pour Veille de la toussaint.

October 22nd was a day long in coming.Much, much too long.'Twas a day I had awaited with quickening breath,Grinding teeth,Fingernails a-tapping.'Twas a day that should have eased the anxiety,Silenced the jitters,Filled the need,Put an end to the lackings.

The morning schedule was the Wednesday oasis,A gloomy calm between two storms.'Twas, as always, an open range for catching up,Filling needs,Meeting expectations.'Twas a time to be grappling with apathy,Sparring with laziness,Not giving in,Put fingers in the energy leaks.

4th period class done, and I was in my BLUE RAV4.

The drive to Makuhari was easy as pie.No traffic in the early afternoon.'Twas a time for cruising straight and quick,Covering ground,Avoiding resistance,'Twas not long before I was off the expressway,On local roads,Soon up the ramp,Put the car into a space found so quickly.

The search for Halloween soon began.Certainly something had to be left.'Twas two months before Christmas,And all through Seasonal,Nothing but Christmas.'Twas not such a surprise,So I got other things,Whatever looked good,Put the cart on the escalator to the food floor.

Last year the pumpkin court ruled the Produce.So many there'd been.'Twas different this year;Not an orange orb in sight,Except oranges.'Twas such a letdown,So I filled up my cartWith what caught my eye.Put a gooey dent in my bank account.

On the way back toward home I spiedCarrefour...;I'd never been there.'Twas as good a time as any.Getting in was a pain,The parking space tiny.'Twas practically empty in the giant store;Where are all the people?Shopping somewhere else?Put the French out of business is their plan?

In Carrefour three aisles of Halloween goodiesAll twenty percent off.'Twas two weeks before the day,Yet already old,And so priced to go.'Twas just fine for me so I filled up a basketEnough for this year,Yet scanty I fear.Put another one in and head food-ward.

In the supermarket section no pumpkins in sight,And no French cheeses either.'Twas sad, but the reason I already know:Bought out by Jusco...Mainstream, don't you know?'Twas mainly the name that was French,And some cool kitchenware,Oh, and wine everywhere.Put those aside and it's just like at home.

Not wanting to let the stop just go to wasteI snapped up more substance.'Twas nothing I needed but wanted all the same:Some Warsteiner beer,Yankee Candles here!'Twas fun but my wallet was howling with pain!And I blocked the laneHauling bags full of gain.Put them in the car and it groans.

And so I went home with a car not full of pumpkins,And it was rush hour.'Twas all Sunday drivers on this Wednesday evening,The speed limit? No, slower.All like tractor-mowers.'Twas fun slaloming all the putt-dinks and grannies,But still not so fast,Till then home at last.Put everything in the house in eight trips.

It seems Halloween has been catching on here.This weird, Western holiday thriving.'Twas scant mention of it a decade ago;Most kids didn't know it,So I'd work hard to show it.'Twas so then, but it seems to be different now.I don't really know how,But it's much more high-brow.Put near more well-known than Tanabata.

10 Comments:

I guess the times are changing. But I see you're out helping the economy all you can ;-) Halloween, as you may guess, has gotten hugely huge here. A co-worker who works with packaging materials got some jack-o-lantern corrugated boxes to hand out. My cats like the peek-a-boo features :-)

NikkipolaniMore and more stores are stocking Halloween decorations and costumes here, which is a huge change over ten years ago. Western-style orange pumpkins, however, still have yet to catch on. (There are plenty of the small, green pumpkins, but people eat those.)

I didn't really intend to help the economy as much as I did...

SnabudonThe fact that real Jack o' lanterns are still quite unusual here makes them even more fun. My kids always get a kick out of them.

LadybugI've always liked Halloween, too. I always liked that traditionally eerie feeling...which seems to have given way to "cute".

DaveOf course, there's the issue of trying to find seeds for the Western-style pumpkin. Not much demand for them here, I'm afraid.

could hardly believe my eyes today when i walked into one of the grocery stores and they had pumpkins! it was a first for me in seeing them... i've lived here for 5+ yrs and have never seen one. now... if the weather wasn't so hot, it would be fun to do some carving... but i think it best to wait until naief is a bit older.

I have never celebrated Halloween - as a kid or even with our kids. Somehow it has passed us all by. Its more American I think than an Oz custom.BUT we will be having lots of pumpkins this season. Peceli planted the seeds of one we ate and there are now about thirty seedlings doing fine - so far in pots.w.

About

I came to Japan in 1990 for what was supposed to be a two-year stint. Then, by some bizarre stroke of fate, I got a real life, so I'm still here. For a gaijin with an imagination and more than his share of sensitivity, these islands are a never-ending source of adventure.

About Me

I was born on a rainy day on the Oregon Coast (no surprises there) and through a rather convoluted sequence of events wound up in Japan. I'm a teacher by trade, moonlighting as a musician and composer. I also do quite a bit of writing on the side. I'm a dreamer, a thinker, a sayer, and a doer all wrapped in one deceptively mild-mannered package.